【SUPER FORMULA Round 3 / Autopolis】

Rain Wind and Fog Hit Super Formula Autopolis Round
Alesi Wins from Pole Position in His Second Appearanc

SUPER FORMULA Round 3

Date	2021/05/15-16
Venue	Autopolis
Weather	Rain
Surface	Wet
Race Lap	42Laps (1Lap = 4,674m)

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The third round of the 2021 Super Formula series was hosted by Autopolis in Kyusyu. Unfortunately, the event was hit by bad weather throughout the weekend. Giuliano Alesi (Kuo Vantelin Team Tom’s) took the pole position in his second appearance in the series and scored his maiden win in the race, which was cut short with the red flag due to a dangerously bad track condition.

The forecast said it would be rainy for the weekend, and it was just right. It rained heavily on Saturday when the free practice and the qualifying session were held. During the practice, there was even a period that almost no one went out on the track since it rained so heavily.

Toshiki Oyu (TCS Nakajima Racing) set the fastest time in the practice. However, it was almost meaningless, as he clocked it in the early minutes of the session when the track conditions were better than those in the later part. However, it showed that he continued to be competitive after good performances in the first two rounds.

Because of the changing conditions, the race control chose to drop the usual knock-out system qualifying. So, the starting grids were decided by the single 40-minute session.

Only four minutes into the session, Kazuya Oshima (NTT Communications Rookie) went off the track, which caused the red flag to stop the session. The rain was becoming lighter, but there was a lot of water on the surface. Therefore, many other drivers were also taken by surprise at the puddles everywhere on the track. The 40-minute session had to be interrupted four times for similar reasons, which didn’t help the drivers.

Kuo Vanterin Team Tom’s had a clear advantage in this situation. As their pit garage was the closest to the pit exit, the team’s drivers were always the first to go out to the track whenever the session restarted after the red flag interruption. This allowed them to begin their qualifying attempt without any water-screen from the other cars ahead. Thus, although Ritomo Miyata (Kuo Vanterin Team Tom’s) was superior to Alesi for a while, the Frenchman bettered his fastest lap time by then after the third restart and put his name on the top slot of the timing screen by beating his teammate by just 0.085 seconds.

Soon after he completed the lap, the rain became heavier, which meant no chance of anyone improving their lap time for anymore. Thus, making the best of a narrow window of opportunity, Alesi secured his first pole position in his only second appearance in Super Formula. He shared the front row with Miyata, and Sena Sakaguchi (P.Mu/Cerumo Inging) sat on the third grid, which was his best qualifying result in this series.

The bad weather continued on Sunday. Following the cancellation of the morning free practice session, the race’s start was also delayed to 14:55. Alesi made a smooth getaway and led the field when they went into the first corner. On the other hand, Miyata’s acceleration wasn’t ideal, and he lost his position to Yuhi Sekiguchi (Carenex Team Impul), who started from the fourth grid.

Sho Tsuboi (P.Mu/Cerumo Inging) and Ryo Hirakawa (Carenex Team Impul) collided when they entered Turn 1 and spun on the track. And the incident triggered turmoil because the following drivers had to avoid hitting them, and some were forced to drive through the gravel bed. But this panic situation certainly helped a few other drivers, as Nobuharu Matsushita (B-Max Racing Team) and Hiroki Otsu (Red Bull Mugen Team Goh) jumped up, despite starting from the 13th and 11th grids, respectively.

To clear up the halted cars of Tsuboi and Hirakawa, plus that of Yuji Kunimono (KCMG), which stopped in the gravel bed, the Safety Car came out on the opening lap. On Lap 4, when the Safety Car was going to come in at the end of the lap, the race leader Alesi nearly lost control just after he got through under the bridge, as he was preparing for the restart.

Looking at it from behind, Sekiguchi tried to make the most of Alesi’s slight mistake, but he failed to turn the final corner properly and went off the track because he took the outside line at the corner where there was less grip. As a result, Matsushita was running in second, followed by Otsu and Sakaguchi, when the racing resumed.

After the restart, there were many overtaking in a thick water-screen generated by the crowded pack of cars. Miyata, who dropped to the eighth because of a bad start, overtook two cars in one move at Turn 1. Then he passed Koudai Tsugakoshi (ThreeBond Drago Corse) at the same place on Lap 7, using the OverTake System.

Now running in fifth, Miyata’s next target was Sakaguchi, who has been his rival since their karting days. Sakaguchi also moved up to third, as he overtook Otsu on Lap 8, and Miyata followed his path on the next lap, but his arch-enemy already built a few seconds gap with him by then.

On Lap 11, the race control sent out the Safety Car since the rain became harder, and the red flag was shown because the weather and track conditions got even worse on Lap 13. Then they decided not to restart the race, as the weather didn’t likely to improve anymore.

As a result, Alesi achieved a maiden victory in Super Formula, leading throughout the race from the pole position. Matsushita finished in the second, but he was demoted to the third since he was given a five-second penalty after the race for his starting procedures infringement. This promoted Sakaguchi to the second.